Assistant professor, department of radiation oncology, University of Toronto

Adjunct scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Research Foci:

Health services

Population-based studies

Breast cancer

Research Summary:

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) represents 20 – 40% of newly diagnosed breast cancers. DCIS itself is not life threatening, however some women with DCIS will develop life-threatening invasive breast cancer. At the present time, we are unable to identify which women will progress to invasive cancer due to small sample size in many studies and variable pathologic evaluation of specimens. Therefore, all women with DCIS undergo surgical treatment often followed by radiation.

This study will establish the largest cohort of DCIS in the world and will be the only population-based study of DCIS with full description of treatment and outcomes and will include complete pathology review. The results of this study will help identify women with DCIS at greatest risk of recurrence, and will facilitate targeting of treatments to those at risk while avoiding unnecessary morbidity for the majority of women with DCIS who will never die of breast cancer.